John picking olives
I’m a little late posting today because we left early this morning to go pick olives. I drove my “new” Corolla; two ladies from the Embassy went with us. We drove about two hours north of Tel Aviv to the Galilee, where we met some other folks from the Embassy who were also on the tour. We caravaned up the mountain on a dirt road and parked among the olive trees.
We picked, then cracked a jar of green olives to bring home to brine. The Arab family who owns the grove brought out a wonderful vegetarian lunch and we ate in the shade of the olive trees. It was a beautiful view down to the valley, and the air was crisp and cool (although the sun was hot). Click to see more olive photos.
Our big news of the week is that our household effects from Mexico were delivered on Wednesday. John and I took the day off to work with the movers and start putting things away. It’s so fun to see our art, and get our own linens and dishes. We spent most of Saturday working on the house, and it’s starting to take shape.
Saturday night, we walked up the beach to a co-worker’s apartment for a small Halloween party – it was fun. Several of the people there work at USAID, and it was good to get to meet people outside the consular section. Click to see photos from the party.
Last Sunday night, we met a group of co-workers (from consular and from other departments) down on the beach. It was advertised as a bonfire, until we realized that you can’t set fires on the beach. It was still a beautiful night to sit out on blankets and listen to the ocean. We walked home along the shoreline so we could dip our toes in the warm ocean.
Last Friday, the consular section went to Jerusalem to meet with our counterparts there. The Consulate in Jerusalem sits up on a hill – most of our meetings were outside, and it was sunny and cool. It was neat to be able to look out over the city (although you can’t see the Old City from there). We got to visit with our A-100 classmate Mary, who is posted there. John took her a kilo of bacon, which is very difficult to find over there (thank goodness for our Russian market up the street here in Tel Aviv!). You would have thought we had brought her a cooler of gold!
So…it was a busy week! Flavie is still doing great, and we’re so glad she is happy!
Cracking olives to brine
Night at the beach